


levamentum

by Tododorky



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: A very specific type of orchid, An orchid type im making up for the sake of this fic so dont call me out, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Rin shows an interest in orchids, Shiemi is supportive and loves her best friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-18 20:40:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11298435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tododorky/pseuds/Tododorky
Summary: Comfort, Consolation, AlleviationorShiemi discovers an important part of Rin’s past, one not to be shared with others so simply.





	levamentum

**Author's Note:**

> This is a oneshot for my love and my life <3 hope u enjoy bby

‘He’s being worked like a dog nowadays, it seems like,’ Shiemi’s expression strained into her textbook, knowing if she tried to wake Rin, it would most likely be disturbing him from some much needed rest in between training and studying. Whether she woke him or not, it wasn’t long before Yukio made his way to their desk and let a book drop down onto the table top. With a slight delay, Rin’s body jerked up and at attention, eyes heavy and swaying from exhaustion.

  
“If you’ve managed to somehow drag yourself all the way here, you might as well stay awake throughout my class and at least just listen, nii-san.” Yukio sighed, dodging a lazy swipe from Rin attempting to knock off his glasses.

  
“Hey, Rin,” Shiemi whispered once Yukio walked back to the board. Rin managed to lazily slump down onto the table and she placed her book up to block her snoozing friend. “If you want, you can come over and I can help you catch up on whatever you’ve missed recently. I’m actually starting to get a hang of all this stuff!” she couldn’t help but sound shocked herself, feeling a slight sense of pride swell up within her.

  
Rin managed to keep an eye open to look up at Shiemi, a lazy nod following. She beamed up like a bright, warm sunrise once Rin accepting her offer, her cheeks rosy and eyes wide with promise. Remembering they were still in class, she quickly turned back to her work. Rin let his eyes close, eyebrows furrowed in contemplation.

  
‘Why’s she acting like I praised her? Weird.’

 

* * *

 

"Of all days to rain, it rains today, right now,” Rin mutters a swear under his breath, holding his uniform jacket over his head to cover himself and Kuro against the downpour. He stood waiting at the gate that overlooked Shiemi’s garden, staring up at the shop she and her mother resided in.

  
_“Ain’t it obvious? She stood you up, Rin,”_ Kuro whined as he peeked his head out from under Rin’s jacket, jumping back under once the rain hit his nose. _“It’s too cold, we’re both gonna get sick!”_ Rin was fighting off the urge to kick the gate down, knowing that it wouldn’t be the best impression to barge in.

  
“She said she wasn’t busy this afternoon, maybe she’s got some client her and her mom are dealing with -- Oh! There she is,” He huffed under his breath, seeing the blonde rush down from the shop doors hurriedly. “Don’t run in the rain, you could fall!” He chided, not sure she even heard him over the rush she was in.

 

Once she got closer, Rin could see her hair was slipping out of the hold it was in, strands of it seemed to stick up and splay wildly and her fringe fell on her face. Her kimono, arms and face had splotches of dirt all over her and she seemed to have some trouble catching her breath.

  
Finally, she reached the gate, pulling it open for Rin and bracing herself against it.

 

“Is..this a bad time for you..?” Rin stepped into the garden, pulling his jacket over Shiemi. She hadn’t seemed to notice it was raining at all.

  
“N-no, I was working..” She cleared her throat and tucked her fringe back, holding it in place. “I was trying to get some gardening done. I have these new flowers I ordered, they’re finally here and my mother needed help with something, I was trying to get that done as well, I just got myself over worked all of a sudden!” She explained as she tried to fix her hair back into a ponytail. Even doing this, there was a sense of extreme restlessness about her. Rin sensed she still had a lot to do.

  
“Well, I mean..it’s only fair,” Rin sighed, this made Shiemi look up at him. “Since you offered to help me out, wouldn’t it make sense if I helped you out with whatever you need to do?”

 

“But that wasn’t what we agreed on before, and I really don’t want you going out of your way-”

 

“I’m not going ‘out of my way’ to help you, this is something I want to do, really.” Rin affirmed with much more verbal directness than necessary, not realizing until his head cleared that he had stepped into her personal space.

 

Shiemi didn’t seem to mind at all. She smiled up at him without the slightest hint of hesitation. “Yeah, okay. Thank you, Rin.”

  
“We haven’t even gotten started yet, why are you thanking me?”

"No, I'm sorry, I think I'm just a little excited to have more help around the place! Follow me please," She turned and guided Rin down an old stone path, the way etched with fresh moss that crept up the stones to collect the fresh rainwater. He adamantly stayed behind Shiemi to keep his jacket over her head as well as his own. They stopped at a building Rin had never gone into before, and he allowed the jacket up a bit to look upward. It was the weathered with time greenhouse that overlooked Sheimi’s shop.

 

She reached into the collar of her kimono and pulled out an old metallic key on a leather string with a calm demeanor and guided the key into a decrepit and rusted lock, turning it to the right and unlocking it.

“Wow, pretty warm in here..” Rin pinched at his soaked shirt to keep it from clinging to his body, brushing his fringe back to put his drenched hair out of his face.

 

 _“Warm and dry is good, cold and wet is bad,”_  Kuro delightfully hummed as he hopped off of Rin’s shoulder and onto a vacant bench where a heat lamp was hovered over for a plant, rolling onto his back to expose his belly.

 

“All the plants in here need the more controlled temperatures and housing. It definitely helps make my life a whole lot easier instead of having to battle the harsh weather and pests outside, anyway.” She said as she adjusted a small tag placed on a beam just above a plant that had its wide limbs splay out wide and reached toward the sky.

  
“Hey, that one..” Rin stopped suddenly, staring at one of the benches. “Shiemi! Holy crap, this one’s opening! Your orchids!” He dashed over to the opposing wall of the large greenhouse, tripping over a large empty pot and miscellaneous tools, falling over himself until he was right in front of the plant.

  
“Oh yeah, they’re right on schedule. Empathecacias usually like the more overcast days.” She concluded happily at Rin’s side, both watching in awe as the buds of the flowering plant shook and slightly struggled to unfurl its soft, thin pedals from itself, opening and exposing itself to the outside world. “They’re really amazing plants, Rin, trust me.”

 

“Why, what do they do?”

 

“Well, their effect on others is mostly tame, but the scent the flowers give off invokes your most powerful and important moments in your life; birthdays, family trips, self excursions that only _you_ could possibly know how hard it was to accomplish the feat, things like that! On the other hand..” She walked up to the pot and pushed back its wide leaves to examine the soil. She looked relieved to find nothing too concerning. “If a nasty enough weed attacks it, it can reawaken your most fearful and unpleasant memories. It does it to tell you -- show you it’s having something similar right then and there.”

   
“Listen, um,” He casts his eyes downward, dusting off his pants of any dirt. “Would it be weird if I asked to have one? I’m sure Yukio would like it, you know, on his desk. I’ll tell him it’s from you.”

  
“I do have more coming in soon, so sure! Take whichever one you..” She stopped herself, watching the way Rin stared at the white orchids. It was a look she hadn’t seen on him before.

His eyes shown some mere flickers of possible remembrance, like he was struck by nostalgia right then and there but couldn't be bothered to move or look away.

 

* * *

 

"Yuki-chan! Hey!" Shiemi ran down the hall that stretched along the campus of the school after seeing him in a group of other exorcists passing by. He excused himself from a conversation with another exorcist and fluidly slipped away from the small group, giving her a modest smile as he waited for her to catch up.

"Good afternoon, Shiemi. Did you need something?"

"Yes -- well no, not me, Rin, he um," She dug feverishly into her bag and pulled out a spray bottle labelled in her own neat and bubbly writing 'empathecacia food'. "This is for yours and Rin's orchids! It'll make the aroma they give off when they open more warm and alluring scent, but there's really no solid way they're supposed to smell; it's described as so many things to others. Like for me I think it smells like Oolong tea with honey and the rain in the winter."

 

Yukio took the bottle from her, eyeing it over with curiosity. "Very interesting, I wonder what it'll remind me of. Hopefully something that's peaceful and will help me unwind a bit."

 

"So how are the orchids doing?"

 

"They're absolutely brilliant! Surprisingly enough, Nii-san's amazing at tending to them and making sure they have enough light -- Oh, speaking of him, would you mind returning this to him?" Yukio thumbed though the pile of papers he held close to his chest and held out a small book. "He left it in class today, and I'd do it myself, but I'm running late for another meeting with the exorcists I was with--"

 

"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hold you up! Of course, I'll go and give it to him now!" She frantically took the book from him and waved him off, running toward the dorm that the twins shared.

 

She made it to their room, the door was already open but she felt the need to make her presence known by knocking on the door frame.

 

Suddenly, Shiemi saw something unmistakable and her fist stopped just in time.  

 

Pots of various sizes and shapes held multiple empathecacia orchids, all set up around this box up on a counter. Rin had been wiping down a black walnut and pecan butsudan with the doors of the shrine inscribed a small intarsia orchid, the inside of the butsudan had been etched with gold and a long furl of rosary beads surrounded a picture of an aged man Shiemi met once, many years ago. 

 

She watched Rin’s eyebrows furrow before he sharply turned to look in her direction. “You planning on watching me the whole time?”

  
“I-I just..” Shiemi felt a shock to the system upon her eyes meeting Rin’s frigid blue eyes. She stumbled out of hiding, unable to stop her hands from fidgeting. “I was worried..I had no idea this was what you..” She couldn’t stop the hot tears welling up. “I’m so sorry, Rin. I was stupid.”

  
“Get back here.” It lacked the anger that he held in his expression. Shiemi turned back to clarify. He gestured back to the small butsudan with a nod of his head.  “Stay a while. Pay your respects.”

  
“I never really knew Father Fujimoto, I have nothing to offer-” Rin stopped her and pointed to the pot of white orchids.

  
“Those were his favorite. I promised I would give him something..some sort of sign that I can grow into something good. I haven’t nearly progressed enough but,” Shiemi heard a stutter through his sigh. “I’m definitely beginning, you know?”

 

“You are growing, Rin,” She said. “Thriving, even. He’d be so proud of you and how strong you are- how strong you’ve become already.”

  
Shiemi felt his roughened finger tips that, when they grazed her skin, told her more of the life Rin had more than he ever would, and soon their hands grew clasped with fingers slotting into the grooves of each other's hands. “Is this okay? S-sorry, I’m..not feeling like myself right now.”

  
She squeezed his hand back, not letting him let go. “It’s alright. We can stay like this for a while.”


End file.
